I have steered away from Google phones and tablets because Google is not really an OEM. Samsung's products are much better in that regard. That said, I would agree that quality-wise, Apple products are the best and that is to be expected given their vertically integrated structure. It's the same story with Macs and PCs, Macs are for the professionals and Windows is for the masses. The good point about Android though compared to Windows is that it's an open platform so competition is high and prices are much lower.

All in all, I am an Android eco-system fan despite its fragmented and sometimes lower quality nature. Let the Apple fans subsidise Apple's innovations for the masses to enjoy these innovations at a lower cost afterwards with Android clones :-)

I'm drawing parallels between my experiences with the 3 things. I returned it not only because the hardware had issue, but also because android itself has issues.

Many people are happy with them. I now have both a nexus 7 and an ipad. Sure, there's a huge price difference. However, I can use my bluetooth keyboard on my ipad and don't have to reboot it daily due to touchscreen issues.

I will say, that if all the bugs were worked out I would ADORE this thing. However, after years of playing with android and linux my hopes for "getting all the bugs worked out" are low.

The article seems to conflate Nexus 7 with Android and Linux. Having a bad experience with Nexus 7 does not imply Android is bad, and that does not imply Linux is bad either. I have a Galaxy tab and I am happy with it. Given the price differential, it's a much better spend than an ipad IMHO.

The fragmentation of the Android eco-system is the price you pay for higher competition and lower prices. You can't have your cake and eat it...

They are great smart phones and have an active leaked OS ecosystem that is giving many people a lot of fun for tinkering, but also the OS is great. and a joy to use. You can side-load Android apps and that gives geeks more things to play with.

Windows 8 is an option, but it seems like their app marketplace never really took off for the phone ecosystem. I'm very eager to get a windows 8 touchscreen computer though. I actually like the whole live tile concept. I'm just a little worried about clutter over time.

Those of us whole lurk in such technical sites are a slight bit different than those of other persuasions in life. Although we are consumers like others; we are viewed as geeks and nerds by the rest of them. The above is the preamble that my post-reply will start with.

I give a lot of credit to Apple and the hw/sw complement which they provide to the populace. If an artist is seeking to create artwork first-and-foremost; I am not certain, if s/he is NOT wanting to learn how to mix paint or how to assemble a brush to become creative. Apple provides that luxury for the artist (or the musician, etc.) Us, technical types, we like to tinker under the hood and write code or install apps and figure out what makes (or how) a product work. To us, one-size-fits-all does not work best and maybe we even like to figure out things on our own. I am inclined to think that we are more inquisitive in such matters; more so than any other consumers.

Apple's perspective [IMHO] is that they know what is good for the user and thus provide what they have figured out is 'best' for them. Of course, those educated in Unix may tinker with an Apple product but that is not a mainstream 'user' that their products are targeted for. In contradiction, the penguin-heads of the Linux camp are (were?) a whole different bunch: Tinkering and command console are (were?) their play-ground. Google/Android changed this playing field to a great degree and simplified/reduced the price of consumers' computing needs. Yet, Android requires more involvement from the user and cannot do it as elegantly as Apple has achieved at a higher cost.

I must be the odd person out, in this discussion; since I think what Microsoft/Win8 provide as an alternative to this Android/iOS debate is a worthy third offering to consider. And I am quite surprised that none of the posts/replies, thus far, have discussed this third option...